ACAS Early Conciliation

ACAS Early Conciliation - from 6th April 2014 anyone wishing to take employment tribunal action must first contact the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) and consider conciliation.

Prior to issuing proceedings in an employment tribunal a claimant will be obliged to provide ACAS with prescribed information either by submitting an EC Form or by telephoning ACAS.

If contact is not made then ACAS will not submit an early conciliation certificate and the claimant will not be able to commence proceedings in the tribunal. The conciliation period is one month. This period can be extended for up to 14 days by agreement. The standard 3 month minus one day time limit for bringing claims will be suspended from the date of receipt of a correctly completed EC form. The time limit for bringing a claim will begin to rung again one day after the EC certificate is deemed to have been received.

Claimants will need to check a very careful eye on the time to bring a claim. Employers will have earlier knowledge of potential claims thus providing an opportunity for a "commercial" settlement.